1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the formation of a layer of material, and, more particularly, to a method of forming a layer of material using an atomic layer deposition process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Manufacturing integrated circuit devices involves performing numerous steps and processes until the integrated circuit device is complete. For example, such processes typically include a variety of deposition processes, etching processes, photolithography processes, and ion implantation processes. As the size of integrated circuit devices continues to shrink, the performance of such operations becomes even more complex given the very small feature sizes involved and the required performance characteristics of the complete device.
Layers of material may be deposited using a variety of different deposition processes. One such process is known as atomic layer deposition (ALD). The ALD process may be enhanced by the generation of a plasma. In general, ALD processes are employed where it is desired to form very thin, high quality layers of material. Basically, the ALD process is a technique that deposits layers or films one atomic layer at a time. In an ALD process, reactants are introduced one at a time with pump/purge cycles in between. ALD reactions involve self-saturating surface reactions. Due to the nature of the ALD process, it is inherently slower than other known deposition techniques, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD), low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD), etc. However, the ALD process does tend to produce layers of material with higher quality characteristics as compared to the other illustrative deposition processes mentioned above.
Various properties of layers of material formed by an ALD process are important in the manufacture of modern integrated circuit devices. Moreover, precise control of the thickness of such layers is also an important aspect of forming layers of material by ALD processes. Unfortunately, existing ALD processing techniques do not adequately address some or all of these issues.
The present invention is directed to methods that may solve, or at least reduce, some or all of the aforementioned problems.